SANYA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China made a strong start to the dragon boat competition at the 6th Asian Beach Games (ABG) on Friday, sweeping both the men's and women's 100m straight race gold medals.
Sanya 2026 marks the debut of the 100m straight race at the ABG. The Chinese men's team clocked 24.076 seconds to secure the team's first-ever gold in a men's dragon boat event at the Games, while the women's team won in 28.260 seconds, finishing just 0.256 seconds ahead of Vietnam.
"We are confident to keep all three gold medals for women at home in China," said coach Song Yanbing, as the team eyes the remaining 200m and 400m titles in the next two days.
In athletics, the Philippines and Vietnam claimed the first gold medals of the program. Leonard Grospe of the Philippines won the men's high jump with 2.05 meters on countback after having made fewer attempts, while Vietnam's Ha Thi Thuy Hang took the women's long jump gold with 6.16 meters.
Heavy rain hit Sanya on Friday afternoon, forcing beach water polo and jiu-jitsu competitions to be moved indoors. In the women's round-robin final of beach water polo, China claimed the gold medal with three consecutive victories.
The final three gold medals of jiu-jitsu were decided at the athletes' village, with Nurzhan Batyrbekov of Kazakhstan, the UAE's Mahdi Alawlaqi and Annie Ramirez from the Philippines winning the men's 69kg, men's 77kg and women's 57kg titles respectively.
In addition, multiple events including sailing, beach soccer, teqball and beach kabaddi were postponed or suspended due to the weather.
With thundershowers forecast to continue into Saturday, event schedules remain subject to change based on conditions. ■
